The Reason JK Rowling Picked the Name Dumbledore in 'Harry Potter'

If only one thing stands out in the Harry Potter series it's the names of the characters, the creatures, the places, and even the spells and potions throughout the books.

J.K. Rowling has a way with names. Being very educated in literature and mythology helped the acclaimed author a lot in naming her characters. Of course, the name Harry Potter alone will stand the test of time, even for people who are not versed in the franchise. But it is also includes unique names like Rubeus Hagrid, Draco Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall, Hermione Granger, and Sirius Black, which makes us wonder where she conjured them up.

Dumbledore in particular comes to mind as one of the more out of the box names, and in an interview with The Connection, Rowling once explained how she came up with names for her characters and how she figured out the great wizard's name. The explantation is actually very simple.

"I'm big on names - I like names, generally," Rowling shared. "You have to be really careful giving me your name if it's an unusual one, because you will turn up in book six. Erm - I - I collect - some of them are invented; Voldemort is an invented name, Malfoy is an invented name, Quidditch is invented, erm - but I also collect them, from all kinds of places: maps, street names, people I meet, old books, old saints, erm - Mrs Norris, people will have recognised, comes from Jane Austen. Erm - Dumbledore is an old English word meaning bumblebee. Because Albus Dumbledore is very fond of music, I always imagined him as sort of humming to himself a lot."

The names in Harry Potter made the series all the more interesting and intriguing, and no doubt made kids want to read on.